My husband and I filed chapter 7 bankruptcy in Connecticut

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My husband and I filed chapter 7 bankruptcy in Connecticut in 2010, which was discharged May 2011. We had a car accident lawsuit case (filed in NY state) that was outstanding at the time (hence property of the bankruptcy court.) The accident case was just settled for $53,000. The bankruptcy trustee, oddly, asked that the amount from the accident case be split: $48,000 would go to my husband, and $5,000 to me (I had a consortium claim.) The contingency fees and court costs brought my husband's expected amount down to $27,734. According to the notice of hearing filed by the Trustee, it looks like my husband is only getting $21,625, and I the full amount of $5,000. We were told (by numerous lawyers) that my husband's exemption amount was $40,000, so that if he were to receive up to that amount, he would be able to keep it. We are totally confused as to why it looks like this is not the case, and the bankruptcy court is taking about $6,100 out of his portion of the settlement. We went back to look through the original bankruptcy papers, and the "schedule C" showed $40,000 for my husband and $20,000 for me. But it also showed (and we were not told this, and did not think anything of it at the time) the "value" of my husband's exemptions are set at $21,625 and mine as $20,000. The hearing with the US bankruptcy court is tomorrow, and we don't know if we should go, or not/if it would make any difference or not. Our bankruptcy lawyer has not returned our calls. We are totally confused, upset and angry. To further confuse matters, the bankruptcy trustee told our car accident lawyer, directly after the mediation where the amount for the accident case was settled, that we would be able to keep the full amount. Can anyone explain this?

Hello I am a licensed attorney here to help you with your question, please review my response and do not hesitate to ask for clarification

WALLSTREETESQ :

What I think happened, was that the lawyer used the Federal bankruptcy exemptions, which in 2010 would have been $21,625 as of 2013 the exemption is $22975, see 522(d)(11)(D) - Personal injury recovery up to $22,975 except for pain and suffering or for pecuniary loss.

WALLSTREETESQ :

you should have also been able to use the CT wild card exemption as well,

I will tell you that...the things you have to go through to be an Expert are quite rigorous.

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